Cliniko
“Can a bootstrapped, founder-owned practice management SaaS keep serving allied health clinics without ever taking outside capital?”
Founded2010
HQMelbourne, Victoria, Australia
FoundersJoel Friedlaender
Total raisedBootstrapped
Latest roundNone (no external investors)
IndustryVertical SaaS / Healthcare
The story
Cliniko is a bootstrapped, founder-owned vertical SaaS for allied health clinics, operated by Red Guava Pty. Ltd. from Melbourne since 2010. The company has explicitly rejected outside investment, kept pricing flat since 2011, and donates at least 2% of subscriptions to charity. Its embedded finance footprint is intentionally minimal — Stripe is the sole payment rail for patient invoicing and online bookings, and Xero is the accounting sync partner. There is no BaaS, lending, or card issuing layer; the product remains focused on scheduling, records, and invoicing for clinicians.
Last 12 months
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Product timeline
2010
Cliniko founded by Joel Friedlaender in Melbourne as practice management software for allied health clinics.· founding
2011
Cliniko subscription pricing launched; pricing has remained unchanged since June 2011.· pivot
2020
Telehealth added as a feature (unlocked with credit card).· product
2025
Serving 65,000+ healthcare professionals globally with regional data storage (AU, UK, CA, IE).· product
The stack
2 layers disclosed in Cliniko’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Accounting
in the full report
Accounting gap: minor
1 more provider across 1 layer, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.